Start a Trucking Company

Although it is less profitable than it used to be due to the increases in fuel costs and competition, you can still make great money if you manage your fleet properly and scale smartly. In this section we will go over how to start a trucking company from nothing to having multiple trucks and drivers on the road.

The first step to creating a trucking company is to get a truck to drive. You can start by either renting a truck from a company like Penske or buying a semi and trailer right away. The nice thing about starting out with Penske trucks is you will not need a large payment down like when buying your first truck, and you can drive up to their medium duty 22 or 26 foot box trucks, their medium duty 18 or 26 foot refrigerated trucks or up to their 24 or 26 foot flatbed trucks without even needing a CDL license. I would recommend getting a CDL license as soon as possible however, because eventually you will need it unless you plan on hiring someone that has one quickly.

If you plan on purchasing your first truck, you can go on Facebook Marketplace to get a running used semi and trailer for around $35,000. This is of course on the low end, but it will depend on the year and the miles of the trucks you look at of course. Make sure that you have a mechanic you pay to take a look at it before buying because purchasing a truck on its last leg can put you out of business fast. Also be sure to haggle with these people because these trucks typically take a while to sell used. Never pay what they are asking unless you already know it is an unbelievable deal. Always offer about 15-20% less to start a negotiation on these and you can go up from there. You can obviously pay cash from your own pocket for these but the best way to go about buying one of these is to open an account with a credit union where you can move some of your money to. Once you have an account with a credit union you can use them to get a great loan with no points and low interest rates on your truck. For your first truck, you will probably have to put it in your own name, but once you buy more you can use an LLC to finance your trucks under and get lower down payments and insurance rates.

Once you have your first truck you will want to get an LLC set up and insurance on it so that you can haul loads with it. To get an LLC set up you can check out our subsection on starting a business entity under the starting a business section. Once you have an LLC set up you will get an EIN number which you can use to set up a business bank account. I recommend using the credit union you got your truck loan under if you went that route so that you can build a further relationship with them and continue to get good rates on your trucks.

Next you want to get your insurance set up. There are a few routes you can take depending on the size of truck you have and the type of freight you are moving. You can start with a Minimum Liability (BIPD) if your truck and equipment is under 10k pounds then the FMCSA will require you to have $300,000 combined single limit for your BIPD aka Bodily Injury and Property Damage. If you are over 10k lbs they will require $750K in coverage combined single limit. If you are hauling cars, they will require $1 million CSL coverage. This minimum liability coverage will be the least money down and you can always increase it if needed. You can always start with the minimum coverage as if you are driving under 10k pounds and let your MC# age so you can get more freights to work with you because sometimes they require it to be valid for over 60 or 90 days, so this is also something to keep in mind. You can also start as fully operational, which costs more down but allows you to deal with everything you need right away. And the last way is with a bobtail/ non-trucking policy. You will set it up in your business name and convert it to your own authority. You can also defer the payment as well while you are on the road making money. Progressive commercial trucking insurance offers great rates and you can give them a call to get even more details about insuring your truck with these options.

During this process with setting up insurance you will also want to start filling out your application with the FMCSA to get your USDOT and MC#. You can go to fmcsa.dot.gov to register and apply and get the process started. They also have a YouTube channel that shows you step by step how to apply for these numbers so that you can legally operate a trucking business in the U.S. You will need to get this done and have those numbers before getting any loads to deliver, so make sure that you get this done as soon as you can so that you can start making money with your truck.

Once you have your first truck and everything set up to operate legally, it is time to find some loads to drive. You will do this by using what is called the spot market. The spot market used to just be the overload of freight that the big trucking companies like Landstar could not handle and so they would use the spot market to deliver this freight by people just like you. Nowadays, the spot market typically refers to freight brokers that don’t actually own trucks but rather focus solely on brokering freight. Truckstop.com and dat.com are the two best load boards that you should subscribe to for $30. They will be your new social media that you spend all day scrolling on so that you can stay on top of new loads and be the first to call them. Also, a lot of the big companies posting to these load boards will post their overflow freight on their own load boards first so be sure to check these daily as well so you can call them before most people even see them. Landstar, C.H. Robinson, Coyote, and C.R. England are all examples of trucking companies that have their own load boards you can check as well to have the best chance of landing freight for your business. You just simply set up an account with them and enter your insurance information and they will give you login information for their load boards. If you focus on these load boards and getting your deliveries done quickly you will set yourself up to grow quickly and be very profitable as a business.

Now that you know how to get business for your trucking company, it is time to get to work on deliveries that fit your schedule and truck specs and start saving some money. Once you have a routine down with checking the load boards and securing loads to the point that you would feel comfortable finding enough loads for another truck, you can start looking for a new driver. I recommend always finding a good reliable driver that has a CDL before even looking for another truck. It is much easier to find a truck than a good reliable driver. You can join trucking groups on Facebook and try making job posts on there or you can check out our full subsection on hiring and recruiting under the Creating a Business section.

Once you have a reliable driver that is ready to go you can get a new loan through your LLC if you have been showing income through it. Go back to the credit union you opened an account with and get approved for another truck loan under your business if they allow you. Find a new truck on Facebook marketplace, add this truck to your insurance and get it on the road with your new driver. You will then repeat this process as you get more comfortable with handling each additional truck. Keep in mind that this will feel a lot like a juggling act. You need to be able to drive your truck, manage your fleet, manage your receipts and tax records, keep track of repairs and cover gas and pay your drivers. Make sure that you use your business bank account to deposit all the income from your loads and set up a credit account with good cash back rewards that you will use for all your expenses. Your credit account should be set up to withdraw the balance every month from the business bank account. You can get one card for each of your drivers for gas and maintenance on your trucks and use the online account statements to track all your expenses in one place. This will keep you from needing a bookkeeper and you can simply give these statements to your accountant at the end of the year.

The last big step when trying to scale your trucking company past 5 trucks or so, is to stop driving yourself all together unless there is an emergency with a driver and start focusing solely on getting more loads and buying more vehicles. At this point you can start buying refrigerated trucks and accepting refrigerated freight that pays more and you can also get loads that require escorts you can hire and government contracts as well. You will eventually get to the point where it would be smart to hire a dispatcher that can organize your loads and get everyone to the right places every day. No matter what roles you choose to take on as you grow, try to offload more tedious tasks to employees and save the obtaining new business part for yourself because no one is going to be as motivated to get more loads for your company than you.